Juno, 4 stars
Watched Jason Reitman’s Juno. Yes, it’s a movie about teen pregnancy, and it’s a pretty good movie indeed.
The script is packed with delicious dialogue, and I’m pretty certain I missed some juicy bits. The finnish subtitling is not bad at all, and at times manages to pull head-to-head with original takes on the english oneliners. The script also manages to pack in more sensible people than expected - the eponymous heroine is wiser beyond her sixteen years, and the people around her are depicted in ways that neatly skirt cliches and overt sugarcoating of hard topics.
Wait… No! I mean, can’t we just, like, kick this old school? Like, I have the baby, put it in a basket and send it your way, like, Moses and the reeds?
The acting is pleasant all around. The starring kids manage to be thoroughly un-annoying, and an even bigger accomplishment is Jennifer Garner’s thoroughly decent performance. But it’s Juno’s parents that actually reign in this film: J.K. Simmons (Jonah Jameson in the Spiderman movies) and Allison Janney (C.J. Gregg from West Wing) steal the scenes they are in, and that’s not a small feat when playing against the leading lady, Ellen Page who is off to a great career after this movie.
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